We are very absorbent beings. This is revealed in how a protege absorbs the environment, as a child growing up in a musical household, or a child leaning to smell like a wolf as our feral children reveal. That foundation in those early years becomes what the child can be and do, and history has shown us that this is very hard to change. What information comes within, as a measure around us, often done repetitively, becomes the measure of what we are,. We call this personality.
Science has discovered that our neurons can rebuild at any time in our lives. Here, I want to say that what we eat also determines this ability, as obviously if we have the building block nutrients, we can rebuild our neurons.
Also, we tend to become habituated to a narrow environment, meaning, we go to school, or work, and return home, rarely having vacations, or a change of venue. When we become automated like this, it becomes more difficult to change, because we begin to move in automated ways, which fits in perfectly with the past, as our industrial model. This can happen over time, and we do not see this happening. Some of us do something to change this, others believe it is impossible. When one becomes habituated to something, changing appears to be difficult, because we have not practiced change in some time. We forget what it means to learn. We forget that when we start something new, it takes time to build the structural awareness, just as in learning to walk, and then begin to generate enough understanding that the movement within the new formation, allows more understanding. it is to say one must generate momentum in order to bring the new information together and create a new structural awareness - one helps the other.
Within this, I realize the whole debate about whole word recognition and phonics creates a friction that is unnecessary. It is both in many ways, and the relationship between the two is always present. Sometimes we have to slow down and look at the parts and then the whole, thus it is both. If one focuses on one in a repetitive and slow manner than that becomes the measure of the child, and the switch into word recognition appears difficult. Mostly there is a time factor here, because the public schools, by design, cannot work through the various moments each child experiences within switching between whole words recognition and phonetic units composing the word. This is that one-on-one situation that is known to expedite the word processing and thus information processing ability of the child. It is, astounding that some parents believe that a public school educates the child, by design, they cannot and they were never meant to do this, as their design. A public school is meant to impart a measure of information abstractly. That is all. if a child is having problems, it is that they do not know the words well enough, The public school cannot resolve this, this is the responsibility of the parents. This is because the design of the public schools, cannot do this. This shows the reason for private schools, because a parent who realizes they cannot do this, will pay for someone to do this by placing their child in a smaller and quieter group to make sure that the child is learning things clearly, as there is more time and a body of students who are attentive because they have had exposure to careful understanding, revealed in their immediate vocabulary. It is that one reflects the other, and our research in education substantiates this..
Our children are becoming more and more emotional, more reactive, more frustrated. And why? Frustration and emotional reactions are a consequence of a lack of structure, meaning they cannot communicate what they feel because they do not have the structural means to do so. Humans use language, and that language is a form of structure. If the words, or few words, are polarized with emotional values, these values as the memory is what becomes the expression of the child. Imagine the story of Humpty Dumpty, he is scattered out into pieces that lack coherence- no one can put him back together again.
We are so absorbent that we take in everything, and if we do not have the structural means within to sort things out, the consequence is undisciplined behaviors, which are emotional behaviors. The information, the form within us is not what allows us to trust ourselves to move, to act, in clear and productive ways.
We see this happening in our schools. We see this happening all the way up the scale of behaviors. Some have enough to direct in some ways, some hide their insecurity, and project blame onto the things around them, which is another form of a lack of self discipline because it is not an act of taking responsibility. It is not sorting out misunderstanding. We can see this, because some are more able to calm a situation which is done when things are sorted out in ways that are not judgmental, as a practical measure is conveyed that each can understand and readily grasp enough to give direction. Hence, within this, punishment is never a solution, the solution is always to give the measure, which requires speaking the words because humans use language, enough and clearly- without buried emotional reactions ( because we are so absorbent ) - that that absorbent and emotional child can see the structure to allow them to be where they really want to be, which is to be self responsible. Look around, we are happy when we are focused, when we have the means to focus, the control to focus, because here we are able to discover ( learn to crawl) and order, and look at the parts ( critique ) and come up with either greater understanding, or new ways of doing things that are those awesome moments ( being creative). Lol, self discovery is also awesome!
Parents and the schools, our society, has a responsibility to make sure this is understood, And it is all in the research as to what builds a competent and self confident child, as this child becomes the adult. Hence, that starting point of knowing one’ s words to the point where one does not have to think about the words is extremely important. As a reading specialist, I cannot stress this enough. It is the foundation of a well formed character, which is a person, a child, who can assess information with ease and confidence. This means assessing the information within, as one’s experience, and the information without as the world around us. This means understanding that emotional reactions are another form of data. This means that we can become automated in our experiences, leading to a fear of change. And this means that we adults, most of us, have become automated in our information, and our words are a relationship to that automated information which is then absorbed by that inherent ability to absorb as how we learn, and that information on automation becomes the child, which then leads to the same in the next generation.
How can a child become the potential of their unique expression within these limitations? They cannot, and the behavioral problems are a reflection of this. Interesting enough, there is a saying that it takes three generations to move out of one’s class ( one’s measure of information). This statement alone, which we all understand, reveals how this all works. we become the information that is us, and if that information is limited - over emotional, or within a narrow focus ( a narrow focus is not bad, yet when automated, as in having a behavior of not being able to change out of it) - it leads to resistance towards anything that is outside of the ONLY narrow focus of what one defines one’s self as only in an abstract within one’s self. A child exposed to such an environment, as that extremely absorbent being, will need continued exposure to information other than that automated information that has developed protective mechanisms towards what is perceived to threaten that information that has become a comfort of not knowing anything other than that, stuck in not changing because it is forgotten how that information was created.
One could blame all of this problem on the economic form as the present system. Here we must ask ourselves what came first. Is the economic structure a consequence of not understanding the absorbent ability of men and the need to structure our awareness and inner experience, our memories? Obviously, the economic system is a consequence of what is educated within the person. We are, and the system is the consequence of what we have allowed within as our abstract perspectives about reality. We have divided our awareness from being grounded in reality. This would explain why the practice of applied behavioral analysis is about directing the child to become practical within their environment. The inability of our children is generations of a practice of imbalance with what is the information that creates the personality and what it means to live in effective ways that practice allowing the person to self direct without running into conflicts that accumulate into behaviors of frustration because not enough was considered practically.
This is why, as a reading specialist I have come to the point where the most important starting point , the greatest gift one can give a child, is words. If a child knows their words so well they do not have to think about them, this frees the child up to process the form conveyed by the words, and the space as their presence to relate those words to practical application in their direct environment. This builds self confidence, and self esteem because the child has the tools to structure and sort out what were their experiences within, and what is practical outside of them as the community in which they live. This allows the child to realize what they are absorbing and what is their experience and what is happening outside of them. Words are structure.
Because so many of us are a practice of abstract information only, and because so many of us are a relationship to our information within, as our memories, as our past experience having forgotten how this all works, we are not enough for our children. We are going to need help to sort this out. We can use technology to help us, because technology is not emotional. We can automate word recognition practice, without pictures, without music, without distractions that trigger our memory of experience filled with emotional values, and build a neurological network that allows us to assess what we have constructed within, and what is constructed as forms, without as the wold around us via a sound and stable word recognition ability. Also, because of the system that exists, there is no one who has the time to make sure that our children really know their words.
Hence, we can use technology to allow the child and the parents and the schools to help themselves and fill in this missing gap, this starting point that is so simple, our emotional chaos within has a difficult time realizing that simplicity. One must ask one’s self here; how many times have you wanted to bang your head on the wall, having in a moment realized that the simple answer was always right there in front of you and it was only your fears and uncertainty and worry that blocked seeing that simple solution? We have all experienced this, and yet therein is the answer within what I attempt to share and explain in this blog.
Honestly, it is not worth it to reinvent such a tool. It takes too much time, and it makes one’s life easier if such a tool is maintained by someone who has taken a lot of time to understand how this works. And, as the research suggests, the study of music is what helped me to understand this, and a life of raising children and working with children in music and in a school setting. I am here to resolve this, because I realized that my children cannot reach their full potential unless all the children reach theirs. Yet, I must find those who are willing to become self responsible, those who realize that no one can do this for the child, but the parent, or perhaps come school administrator that has also begun to realize that this is how all of this works. There are cost effective innovations in the private sector, that sector who can also maintain a tool because this is too much for a school to focus upon. Each must step outside of a belief system and use what we as men can do so well when we assess and change as this is an act of reforming one’s self and becoming more aware of life. This can build a child who lives practically, as they do not fear common sense because they have the words to convey what is a solution that benefits all.
If you are interested in a tool that helps with the most basic of structural development as words, imparted in such a way that time and space to practice the words is given for everyday use, and the word recognition skills are developed without emotional ties that end up polarizing judgement causing mistakes that then create consequences that slow down development, please respond with a comment and a presentation can be set up. It is free.
